1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of setting an address of a communication apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a communication apparatus and method of supporting various types of address establishment schemes.
2. Description of Related Art
In an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) environment, a communication apparatus includes a 128-bit address. Also, the IPv6 environment generally includes two schemes to set an address of the communication apparatus.
A first scheme is suggested by Request for Comments (RFC) 2463 in which a communication apparatus generates a network address of the communication apparatus. The communication apparatus receives a Router Advertisement (RA) message from an access router. The RA message includes a 64-bit prefix which is utilized to generate the address of the communication apparatus. The communication apparatus generates the address to use by concatenating the 64-bit prefix with 64 bits, which are generated by the communication apparatus. Also, the communication apparatus performs a duplicate address detection (DAD) with respect to the generated address of the communication apparatus. When a uniqueness of the address is verified, the communication apparatus sets an address of the communication apparatus to the generated address.
A second scheme is suggested by RFC 3315 in which a communication apparatus receives an address, which the communication apparatus shall use, from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol version 6 (DHCPv6) server. The communication apparatus performs a DAD with respect to the received address, and sets an address of the communication apparatus to the received address when a uniqueness of the address is verified.
To perform communications using a communication apparatus, an address of the communication apparatus should be set. Both the first scheme and the second scheme should perform a DAD at all times. How to perform the DAD is disclosed in RFC 2461. However, since it takes a comparatively long time to perform the DAD, a great amount of initialization time may be required to utilize the communication apparatus.
In a substantial communication environment, a DAD may not be required to be performed, however, in a related art, the DAD should be performed at all times.
Also, in the related art, since an address establishment scheme that a communication shall use is fixed, a method capable of dynamically changing the address establishment scheme according to a communication environment of the communication apparatus is not provided.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved apparatus and method for setting an address of a communication apparatus for supporting various types of address establishment schemes.